I think I have this room booked?

If you’ve ever worked in an office of any size you will appreciate that meeting rooms are a rare and precious resource.

Whatever sort of business you might be working in, you are going to want to have meetings. Whether that’s internal meetings with members of your team or organization, or external meetings with prospects, clients, suppliers, or stakeholders.

Given that office space is generally fairly expensive, and meeting rooms take up space, most businesses try and keep them to a minimum – meaning that whenever you want to hold a meeting all of the meetings rooms are occupied.

Meeting Room Booking Systems

Because of the high demand for meeting rooms in an office environment, you will generally find that there is some sort of booking system in place. This can range from the simple (but often highly effective) practice of fixing a sticky-note to the door confirming the time that you will require the room; to the more complex online systems that require users to log in and book their meeting requirements.

The problem with booking systems

It doesn’t really matter whether you are using a simple meeting room booking system or a really high-tech booking system, all of them generally encounter the same problem – human nature. Despite the best of intentions, your colleagues and co-workers will find any excuse and opportunity to use a meeting room when it suits them – regardless of what the booking system says.

This often results in you having to knock politely at the door, explaining that you had the room booked, then there is generally a bit of debate and discussion as to whether or not the booking system is working to add to the general confusion.

All of this means that you are wasting valuable time arguing over whether or not you are in the right room instead of getting on with the work that you had set out to do.

The solution to meeting room booking dilemmas

Unfortunately there is no easy solution, but there are two steps that all businesses need to take if they are to find an efficient solution to the allocation of meeting room resources.

Firstly, you need to have some sort of system in place. Most businesses are opting for conference room scheduling software that empowers their workers to identify and book available meeting rooms.

Secondly, you need to enforce compliance with the meeting room booking system. It sounds a bit ridiculous, but the more you can get your workers to use the system and stick to the system then the more time and aggravation you will save. Often this task falls to an office manager or an office assistant who has to play bad cop. It won’t make them popular but it will make your business more efficient.